The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) inherited the functions of the General Land Office when it was established by Congress in 1946. The Ohio Land Patents Database, derived from General Land Office information, contains deeds (primarily patents) issued by the United States in the region now known as the State of Ohio between 1790 and 1907. While BLM has been referred to as "the Nations record keeper", it is the National Archives that actually keeps the files. The BLM, maintains diagrammatic plats known as Master Title Plats, which depict lands which are owned by the United States and lands which are patented.

However, these plats do not have any information about who the lands were patented to. That information which has only been available after tedious research, it is available now in this database. The Ohio Land Patents Database contains the following information for each land transaction: date, location (township, range, section, meridian), name of person the land was patented to, county, and the patent document identification number (patent number). Using this information you can view a scanned image of the actual land record on-line at the BLM Eastern States General Land Office web site:

Enter your ZIP Code on the first page to get into the web site, then choose Ohio Land Records. You can order a certified copy of the record for $2 through their web site. You can also obtain copies of the patent file for $10 from the National Archives at the following address:

This file will contain another copy of the land record available from the BLM web site, plus any supporting materials submitted, such as bounty lands warrants, or other documents.

You need to submit your request on a copy of Form 84. To get the form, send an e-mail message to

In the body of the message, be sure to ask for Form 84 "Order for Copies of Land Entry Files", tell them how many copies you want (get at least 2, in case you make a mistake) and give your name and snail address so they can send you the forms.

(Or you can send a snail mail letter to above address). Sending by e-mail takes less than a week; by snail mail both ways takes about 2 weeks.

ALIQUOT or partial fraction of the section - The description of fractional section ownership used in the U.S. public land states. A parcel is generally identified by its section, township, and range. The aliquot specifies its precise location within the section, for example, the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter.

RANGE - In the U.S. public land surveying system, a north-south column of townships, identified as being east or west of a reference longitudinal meridian, for example, Range 3 West. See township.

SECTION - In the U.S. public land surveying system, an area one mile square. See aliquot.

TOWNSHIP - In the U.S. public land surveying system, an area six miles square, containing 36 sections. The townships are organized in rows and are identified with respect to a reference latitudinal baseline, for example, Township 13 North. See range.

Ohio was the first state to be surveyed by the United States. Its lands in the public domain wre the first sold by the U.S. Treasury (later by the General Land Office). The Land Ordinance of May 20, 1785, was the basis of the Federal land survey system. The Ordinance established the rectangular system of survey. Many very different styles of survey were used in Ohio before adopting the one in use today. The first public lands surveyed in the United States were the "Seven Ranges." This was the only survey done under the Continental Congress. Sometimes it is sometimes difficult to figure out exactly where a particular tract of land lies in Ohio. Here is a list of some of the Ohio Surveys:

CONNECTICUT WESTERN RESERVE - covers all northeastern Ohio. In her deed of cession dated September 13, 1786, Connecticut retained more than 3 million acres. In 1796, Connecticut sold 3 million acres of the reserve to the Connecticut Land Company but the Indian title to the reserve had not been extinguished then. Clear title was not obtained until the Greenville Treaty in 1795 and the Treaty of Fort Industry in 1805. The west end of the reserve included the 500,000 acre "Fire Lands or Sufferers Lands" reserved for residents of several New England towns destroyed by British-set fires during the Revolutionary War. The General Land Office did not maintain these records and therefore none of these records are in this database.

Contact the Ohio State Archives in Columbus for more information.

VIRGINIA MILITARY DISTRICT - covers area bounded by the Scioto River, the Ohio River, the Little Miami River, the Ludlow Line, and the Roberts Line in west-central Ohio. Reserved to satisfy Virginia Revolutionary War military warrants. These metes and bounds land descriptions cover more than 6,570 square miles. BLM has 25 volumes of these warrants and none of them are included in this database; the BLM has indexed about half of them; the rest were multi-page documents and will be indexed later. Check the BLM web site for the most up-to-date listing of indexed records.

Note that the records do not show much more than names and warrant numbers. The land descriptions are almost impossible to connect to a specific location since most refer to previous metes and bounds surveys in that area.

Again, please contact the State Archives for more information.

OHIO RIVER SURVEY - covers most of southeastern Ohio. The base line of the survey followed the meanders of the Ohio River from the Pennsylvania-Ohio state line to the mouth of the Scioto River. Townships were numbered northward from the Ohio River, leading to non-standard locations (i.e., in Muskingum County, Township 15 North, Range 14 West, is due west of Township 11 North, Range 13 West).

Includes the Ohio Company Purchase and the Donation Tract, for which there are some records; there are no records about the disposition of the French Grant in Scioto County. Contains duplicate townships (Townships 9, 10, and 11 in Range 21). Also confusing because this survey wraps around the U.S. Military District Survey (see below).

U.S. MILITARY DISTRICT SURVEY - covers most of central Ohio. Established by Act of Congress of June 1, 1796, to satisfy Congressional resolutions to grant bounty lands to Continental officers and soldiers. The Surveyor General divided the U.S. Military into five districts and made the west boundary of the Seven Ranges a meridian line and south boundary of the reserve a base line. Townships were numbered north from the south boundary and west from the Seven Ranges. Townships 1 through 6 west, were the southeast survey district. The remaining townships in Ranges 1 through 4, and Ranges 7 through 12, were in the south middle district; the remaining townships in Ranges 7 through 12, the north middle district; and all the townships west of Range 12 were the western district. Most townships only contain 25 sections instead of 36; some townships were subdivided into four sections containing about 4,000 acres each. Also includes several tracts reserved for the United Brethren; the Salem Tract (present-day Port Washington), the Gnadehutten Tract and the Schoenbrun Tract (present-day New Philadelphia).

MUSKINGUM RIVER SURVEY - only contains two townships in Summit and Stark Counties, west of Akron and Canton.

FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD SCIOTO RIVER SURVEYS - bordering on the Scioto River, north of Range 22 of the Ohio River Survey, runs north from the mouth of the Scioto River at Portsmouth.

REFUGEE TRACT - covers the tier of townships in the Ohio River Survey along the southern border of the U.S. Military Survey roughly running from Zanesville west to Columbus. Does not have a separate meridian code. Listed under the Ohio River Survey. Lands were reserved for refugees from Canada in the early 1800's for aiding the colonial cause during the Revolutionary War. Unclaimed lands were generally sold.

BETWEEN THE MIAMIS - covers area between the Miami and Little Miami Rivers in southwestern Ohio. Unique in that the township and range directions ran counter to all other public land surveys in the United States. The General Land Office did not maintain land records for the Symmes Purchase (Cincinnati area) within this survey.

WEST OF THE GREAT MIAMI - covers area south of the Greenville Treaty line, east of the Ohio-Indiana state line and west of the Miami River in southwestern Ohio. Township numbering is somewhat confusing since the base line of the survey, much like the Ohio River Survey, followed the meanders of a river (the Miami).

FIRST PRINCIPAL MERIDIAN (NE and SE) - covers most of northwestern Ohio except the "Toledo Strip." Not to be confused with the First Principal Meridian lands in Indiana (see Cincinnati Land Office, below). All Indiana records will be uploaded to the INGenWeb Archives.

TWELVE MILE SQUARE - covers a four-township survey at the foot of the rapids of the "Miami" (Maumee) River in and around Toledo. Patents for land in Ohio that were purchased in Michigan are included; since the old state line between Michigan and Ohio ran through this survey.

MICHIGAN MERIDIAN - the "Toledo Strip" in far northwestern Ohio was once claimed by Michigan. Led to a serious dispute between Michigan and Ohio until the admission of Michigan to the Union in 1837.

In addition, some townsite surveys are included in our records, such as Lower Sandusky, Perrysburg, Croghansville, (present-day Fremont) and GNADENHUTTEN.

Until the 1840's, the land office in Cincinnati issued several thousand patents for land in southeastern Indiana. A rule of thumb for locating these would be to look for the land description(s) on a particular record from the Cincinnati land office and see if it lies either within the Second Principal Meridian (directions North and East for township and range respectively), or within the First Principal Meridian with a township direction of North and a range direction of West.

Lands falling within the First Principal Meridian sold at Cincinnati are not to be confused with those within the First Principal Meridian in northwestern Ohio. These were primarily sold by the land offices at Bucyrus, Defiance, Delaware, Lima, Marion, Piqua, Tiffin, Upper Sandusky, and Wapakoneta. The Cincinnati First Principal Meridian lands were all located in southeastern Indiana within a roughly triangular-shaped area bounded by the Ohio River, the Ohio-Indiana state line, and the Greenville Treaty line extending southwest from Fort Recovery to the Ohio River, at the mouth of the Kentucky River.

Ohio has nine major land surveys and 46 sub surveys. The key to understanding and using Ohio land records is the original land surveys. Ohio is unique. It was the test state for the Federal Rectangular Survey System, yet it has the Virginia Military District, composed entirely of metes and bounds surveys. This short history of Ohio lands begins with the territory's earliest inhabitants. More can be read about this at "Ohio Lands - A Short History".